Haas Reveal DRS Caused Grosjean’s Free Practice Off at Silverstone

Guenther Steiner revealed that Romain Grosjean’s practice crash at Silverstone at Abbey was the result of the Frenchman switching off his Drag Reduction System (DRS) too late, which caused him to lose the rear of his VF-18 and hit the barrier.

The damage was significant enough for Grosjean to miss the second session on Friday afternoon as his Haas F1 Team mechanics changed the chassis of the car, meaning across the two sessions he completed only twelve laps, although he was seventh fastest in that opening session.

“Romain switched off his DRS a little bit too late on his second fast lap and he lost grip in the rear, because he lost downforce, basically, and he spun out and hit the wall,” said team principal Steiner. “We had to change the chassis because there is some damage, and it’s easier to change the chassis than it is to try and fix it.

“The good thing is that Romain was fast.”

Grosjean admitted it was disappointing for him not only to crash, but to miss the second practice session and the running in the hotter conditions that are expected to be even hotter on Saturday for Qualifying.

The Frenchman admitted he was watching with interest at what team-mate Kevin Magnussen did on track, and despite the lack of track time, he is confident that he can have a strong performance in that Qualifying session.

“We’re not pleased to miss FP2, but there’s been some good work done on Kevin’s car,” said Grosjean. “I was following the whole afternoon session.

“Obviously, we’re going to try and squeeze as much out of FP3 as we can. The car was fast this morning, so I think we should be alright. Hopefully, we can build up nicely tomorrow, and then do some fine tuning for qualifying when the track temperature gets really high. That’s going to be the biggest challenge for us, as we haven’t run those high track temperatures.

“Kevin was doing some good runs. I’ve just been looking at what he was doing out there, and trying to take that on-board for ourselves for our side of the garage.”